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Big Win Tuesday. Now, Will the Jets Make a Move?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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Ondrej Pavelec makes another huge save.

TAMPA — Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the Winnipeg Jets won a huge hockey game.

In fact, when Bryan Little scored the shootout winner, it was more than just a win in the 51st game of a long season. It might have been the most important win of 2012.

For 65 minutes on Tuesday, the Winnipeg Jets went toe-to-toe one more time with the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Centre and for the third time this season the Winnipegs emerged victorious. Chris Thorburn scored his first goal of the year in regulation time (and it was a goal scorer’s goal); Little fired the only goal of the shootout; Blake Wheeler played 23 minutes, had five shots on goal and was an absolute beast; and Ondrej Pavelec made 27 saves as the Jets beat the Flyers for the third consecutive time.

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Blake Wheeler playing like a beast.

“That was a big two points for us,” Jets head coach Claude Noel said after the game. “We were wearing down in the third period, but we found a way to win the game.”

It’s true. A Jets team without Dustin Byfuglien, Alexander Burmistov and Evander Kane did wear down in the third period, but they played well enough defensively to hang in long enough and get the bonus point in a shootout. For the first two periods, however, the Jets actually outplayed the Flyers in Philly and they definitely deserved that extra point.

However, they still can’t score. The Jets have scored only 21 goals in 13-plus (counting overtime) games in 2012, but if they continue to check as well as they did against the Flyers on Tuesday, they’ll win a lot more games than they lose.

So here’s the deal with the trade deadline just three weeks away: as they head into Tampa tonight, the Jets are 23rd overall in goals scored at 2.47 per game. The team’s leading scorer, Blake Wheeler, has nine goals and 33 points. He is 87th in scoring in the NHL. The team’s leading goal scorer, Evander Kane, has 18 and is tied for 29th in the NHL but was in the midst of a 10-game goal scoring drought when he suffered a concussion and was lost indefinitely.

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Evander Kane's return will help.

The Jets have scored 126 goals in 51 games this season. Within the Eastern Conference, only the Islanders (120 in 49) and Sabres (120 in 51) have scored fewer. Of course, while the Jets have 126 total, they scored nine in one game against Philadelphia. The Jets are actually one game away from being the lowest-scoring team in the Eastern Conference. As a group the Jets are also a minus-18.

In the month of January, the Jets went 4-8-1. To date, the Jets are 23-22-6 on the season. Last season, as the Atlanta Thrashers, they were 23-19-9 after 51 games. In 13-plus games (counting two overtimes) this month, the Jets have scored a meagre 21 goals.

Now, to be fair, they played part of the month without Kane, Zach Bogosian and Alex Burmistrov and they played the entire month without their all-star, Dustin Byfuglien. At the start of the season, everyone knew this team was thin, but January has proven that little nugget beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Now it’s February and it starts tonight here in Tampa. It has become quite clear that the Jets need scoring help. This is not a team that takes nights off. It’s work ethic is pretty much beyond reproach. Still, the people who run this team know it can’t score. And it becomes especially weak up front when certain players — like Byfuglien, Kane and Burmistrov — go down with injuries.

So as the 2012 trade deadline looms (Feb. 27), what should Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and his brain trust do? Does he move his veteran grinders and build for the future? Or does he deal prospects and draft picks, try to find a scorer and take a run at the playoffs?

Right now, the Jets could use three things:

1. A scorer, obviously, but that’s not an easy thing to acquire. For example, if Ryan Getzlaff or Bobby Ryan are actually available in Anaheim, who could the Jets trade to get them? Who would interest a team like the Ducks? Making trades are an art AND a science and big ones don’t just happen over a glass of cognac at the all-star break. We are not naive enough to believe these trades are made easily. You have to give to get and the asking price just might be too much.

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Designated Fighter Chris Thorburn.

2. A tough guy. The Jets don’t always open up enough space for the guys who can put the puck in the net. They’re also at a point where they need Chris Thorburn and Mark Stuart to fight for them. Yes, yes, we all want fighting eliminated from hockey, blah, blah, blah, but the fact is, fighting has not been eliminated and the Jets don’t have a guy who can stop a player like Shawn Thornton of the Bruins from running their goalies and pounding the crap out of defensemen they need in the lineup. They also need a guy who can drop the gloves on the road, win a fight without getting hurt, not hurt the team’s skill level by being in the box for five minutes and give the club a pick-me-up.

3. Depth. Two injuries and this team can’t recover. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the personnel to stay in the hunt without Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang. The Jets lose Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Bogosian and it’s downhill all the way.

When the team arrived in Winnipeg at the start of the 2011-12 season, Cheveldayoff and company made it clear that the new organization would be patient. They would not do anything rash and would build with youth and draft picks. After all, they have 3-5 years of sold-out buildings and they know their fans will also be patient and wait for them to build a legitimate contender.

Trouble is, they’ve talked all year about making the playoffs. The two aren’t necessarily exclusive, but…

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Our NHL All-Star Break Award Winners

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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Alex Ovechkin

It could be argued that Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are the two most talented players in all of hockey.

But of course, Crosby has been out for almost an entire year with a concussion and Ovechkin, although he’s trying to change his game, hasn’t quite come to grips with his coaches’ demand for a more defensive approach to the sport.

As a result, for different reasons, hockey’s two greatest talents have been missing.

For fans and fantasy players, that’s not great news. For other players, however, it’s an opportunity to step up, score some goals, become leaders and make a name. One man’s disappointment is always another man’s opportunity.

As a result, a whole collection of new, young stars has risen to the top in the National Hockey League this season. Names that might not have been well known a year or two ago are now getting the respect that their coaches, teammates and a whole lot of scouts believed they always deserved or, at least, would earn.

nhlasg2012logo Our NHL All Star Break Award WinnersWe’re now just a week away from the NHL’s Mid-Winter Classic, the All-Star Game in Ottawa. At that game, you will no doubt be introduced to a number of young players who could, one day, take up the mantle that has been left virtually untouched since Crosby’s injury.

You will no doubt also recall some old names that have been stars in this league and are clearly stars once again. The one thing that this year’s all-star game will bring clearly to mind is the names of the players who should be honored at the end of the 2011-12 season.

In order to set you up for the big game in Ottawa, here’s a look at the players who should be honored at the mythical midway point of the campaign. These are our seven major award winners for the opening half.

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Evgeni Malkin

The Hart Trophy, Most Valuable Player: Our winner is Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and our runners up are Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers and Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers. nhl.com gave us a pretty clear outline of what Malkin has done in order to almost single-handedly keep the banged-up Penguins in the heart of the Stanley Cup playoff race:

“Since Crosby exited the lineup on Dec. 5, the Penguins have limped to a 9-9-0 record in his absence. If not for the heroics of Malkin things could be a whole lot worse. In those 18 games without Crosby — and not to mention Kris Letang one of the NHL’s best offensive defenseman who returned to the lineup after a two-month absence on Thursday — Malkin has 15 goals and 15 assists. He has factored in 30 of the Penguins’ 53 goals during that time (56.6 percent) and has been on the ice for a whopping 34 (69.8 percent) goals during that stretch.”

Malkin has also taken over as the NHL’s scoring leader (54 points) and he’s kept the Penguins within the Top 6 in the Eastern Conference.

Our runners-up are Giroux who is more responsible than anyone in that Flyers lineup for keeping Philly in the Top 5 in the East and Lundqvist, because the Rangers have 62 points and are first in the East for only one reason: goaltending. 

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Henrik Lundqvist

The Vezina Trophy, the Best Goaltender: Well, if he’s almost the MVP, Henrik Lundqvist is certainly the best goalie. The runners-up are Jonathan Quick and Jimmy Howard.

Lundqvist has played 34 games and has a 1.93 goals against average to go with his .936 save percentage. He’s 20-10-4 and has saved the first-place Rangers on more than one occasion.

Howard has played 39 games and is 28-10-1 with a 1.98 goals against average and .926 save percentage while Quick is 20-11-9 with a 1.92 GAA and a save percentage of .934. Frankly, if the Rangers aren’t first in the East and Lundqvist doesn’t make so many game-saving stops, I’d look at Quick as the best goalie in the game this year.

Of course, there is also that two-headed monster in Boston. Tuukka Rask is 11-4-1 in 16 games with a 1.61 GAA and a .946 save percentage while Tim Thomas is 19-9-0 in 30 games with a 2.02 GAA and a .936 save percentage. Turn those two guys into one and you have the best goalie in the world.

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Adam Larsson

The Calder Trophy, Rookie of the Year: There are three players I love for this award at the midway point of the year. Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins leads all rookie scorers with 13 goals and 22 assists. Adam Henrique in New Jersey is next with 13 goals and 21 assists. And then there is New Jersey’s Adam Larsson, a big, powerful defenseman who is logging 22-25 minutes a game.

If I had to vote today, Larsson would get my vote. It’s tough enough to learn to become a regular defenseman in the NHL. Larsson, the No. 4 pick overall last spring, has not only learned, he’s instantly become one of the best rearguards on a defensive minded team. In fact, he’s the No. 1 defenseman in the Devils lineup right now.

At 6-foot-3, 210-pounds he has all the tools to play the position but the fact he can skate, hit and clear the front of his own net, makes him, potentially, one of the great players of the future in the NHL today.

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Zdeno Chara

The Norris Trophy, Best Defenseman: We still love Nick Lidstrom and always will, but this year, Zdeno Chara, all-star captain and leader of the Boston Bruins, has been remarkable. He won his first Norris Trophy in 2008-09, and has been the Bruins rock ever since. He is currently on a pace to set career highs in assists, total points, and plus/minus, all while being the most imposing force on defense in the game – anywhere on the planet.

Our runners up are Nick Lidstrom (of course) of the Detroit Red Wings, and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators for reasons that are obvious.

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David Backes

The Selke Trophy, Best Defensive Player: There is only one choice for the Selke this year and while Ryan Kesler, Pavel Datsyuk, Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron will get a load of support from the media voters, there is only one guy who passes the best defensive forward test at every level.

Centre David Backes of the St. Louis Blues covers the opposition’s best line on every shift. He starts most shifts as the centre in his own end and wins most of his faceoffs – and almost all the important ones. In fact, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock sends Backes out on to the ice 63 per cent of the time when his team has to start with a faceoff in its own end.

Backes also leads his team in scoring with 14 goals and 19 assists, is a plus-13 and is the leader on the power-play AND the penalty-kill. He’s also a leader on a team that is a remarkable 28-12-6 this season. He was snubbed by those selecting the players to attend this year’s all-star game and he’s been snubbed by the media mob that wants to give Toews an award, but won’t give him the Hart Trophy. Still, quite clearly David Backes is the best defensive forward in the game.

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Teemu

The Lady Byng Trophy, Most Gentlemanly Player: I don’t even have a runner-up for the Lady Byng. There is only one player who is even in the mix: Teemu Selanne.

The fact that he plays the game with passion, is the 15th leading scorer at age 41, seldom gets a dirty penalty, is beloved throughout the league and is such a class act at every possible level that there is no greater gentleman in all of hockey, makes this award a no-brainer. In fact, he should get it as a lifetime achievement award for being both a great player and a great human being.

I frankly, don’t care about anyone else. As one of my colleagues, Jonathan Willis, recently wrote: “This award really should go to a guy like Selanne, who has shown over a long career that he’s a superb player and someone who has exhibited exceptional sportsmanship throughout his career.”

Can I get an Amen?

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Paul MacLean

The Jack Adams Trophy, Coach of the Year: Absolutely no doubt about it, Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators is the coach of the year. Our runners-up would include Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues and Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings.

MacLean, the former Winnipeg Jets rightwinger has the Senators in fourth place in the East with a record of 27-16-6. A man who learned his coaching philosophy as a player and as an assistant to the very accomplished Babcock in Detroit, MacLean has taken an Ottawa team that was 32-40-10 (13th in the East) last season and nearly equaled that win mark by the all-star break.

There is no doubt that MacLean’s efforts have taken a team that was expected to miss the playoff this year and turned it into a team that is now three points out of first place in the entire NHL.

Babcock has Detroit in first overall with 63 points and what makes him great is his ability to handle some huge egos and make the gifted Red Wings play as a team. Meanwhile, Hitchcock replaced Davis Payne early in the season and in a very short time coaxed the Blues into fourth in the West.

By the way, I have no problem with those people who promote the efforts of Alain Vigneault in Vancouver, Barry Trotz in Nashville and John Tortorella with the Rangers. They’ve all done great work.

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The 10 Biggest Stories of the Opening Half

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

sport 257 The 10 Biggest Stories of the Opening HalfIt’s halftime. Most of the National Hockey League’s 30 teams have played 41 of 82 games and for some of the teams, it’s been quite a ride. For a load of others, of course, it’s been a nightmare.

The Anaheim Ducks were fourth in the West last spring with 99 points. At the midway mark of 2011-12, the Ducks have only 11 wins and 28 points. Last year, the Atlanta Thrashers were in the midst of a downward spiral, set to miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. This year, the Thrashers are now the Winnipeg Jets and after a win in their 41st game of the season on Saturday night, they sit in ninth place in the East, just a point below the post-season line.

Still, there was a lot more to the first half of this season’s NHL campaign than just the woes of the Ducks and the euphoria in Winnipeg. In fact, finding the 10 most important issues of the first half was so easy, we had to exclude a few for the first time in four seasons of making this list.

So without further adieu, here’s our First Half Top 10 NHL Issues for 2011-12:

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Teemu

10. The Collapse of the Anaheim Ducks: Last season, with 99 points, the Ducks made the playoffs easily. With stars such as Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Cam Fowler, the Ducks were expected to challenge for the Stanley Cup. Uh, oh. The Ducks have 12 wins in their first 40 games and general manager Bob Murray told the Los Angeles Times last week that he’s just about ready to blow it up. Murray said Selanne and Koivu were “untouchable,” but everybody else was available. This is a very good team with very good players but something is wrong. Murray fired head coach Randy Carlyle and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau and nothing changed. One suspects that the Ducks will be a completely different team by the trade deadline. Oh yeah, and Teemu won’t be an untouchable by the Feb. 27 trade deadline. He’d look great in a Jets uniform.

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Claude Giroux

9. The Emergence of Claude Giroux: In 2006, Claude Giroux was the No. 1 draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, 22nd overall. This guy had enjoyed two straight 100-point-plus seasons with the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec League, had wonderful speed, great moves and soft hands and yet it took 21 selections before the Flyers could grab him because so many teams thought that at 5-foot-11, 170 pounds, he was a tad undersized. Before Giroux was taken, Florida took Michael Frolik, Tampa selected Riku Helenius, Anaheim took Mark Mitera and Montreal took David Fischer. Huh? Giroux was playing at the Habs doorstep and that organization didn’t even notice. Last year, Giroux had 25 goals and 51 assists. This year, at the midway point, he has 18 goals and 30 assists, is second in scoring in the NHL and has missed four games with a head injury. Right now, 23-year-old Claude Giroux might be the best young player in the NHL.

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Scott Arniel - gone.

8. Coach Firings: It started when the St. Louis Blues fired Davis Payne on Nov. 5 and replaced him with Ken Hitchcock. Now, nearly one-sixth of the entire league has fired its coach. Washington fired Bruce Boudreau and replaced him with Dale Hunter; Carolina fired Paul Maurice and replaced him with Kirk Muller; Anaheim fired Randy Carlyle and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau; Los Angeles fired Terry Murray and replaced him with Darryl Sutter; Montreal fired Jacques Martin and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth and on Monday, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired Scott Arniel and replaced him with Todd Richards. St. Louis, Washington and L.A. have benefited from the changes. Not so much for Anaheim, Carolina and Montreal. We’ll wait on Columbus, but that’s an American Hockey League team. I wouldn’t expect a change in fortunes.

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Adam Larsson

7. The Game’s Great Teenagers: On Jan. 31, Tyler Seguin turns 20. Until then he is one of the league’s many outstanding teenaged stars. Seguin has 37 points in 37 games this season and is a plus-32, that’s the best in the entire NHL. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Jeff Skinner (down with a concussion), 18-year-old Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (35 points in 38 games) of the Oilers, 19-year-old Adam Larsson (24 minutes a game as a defenseman) of the Devils, 19-year-old Gabriel Landeskog (plus-10 on a minus team) of the Avalanche and 19-year-old Sean Couturier of the Flyers, are all playing regularly – and well – in the best league in the world.

6. Realignment: The league voted 26-4 to realign the league in 2012-13 from a two-conference, six-division operation in which 16 teams made it to the playoffs, to a four-conference league, separated by time zones. It was brilliant, but it didn’t even get off the ground.

5. The Rejection of Realignment: This was a bigger deal than realignment itself. In an effort to fire a salvo at the owners, the players rejected the league’s new realignment. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said it had something to do with travel and fairness (since when did the Agents Association give a crap about fairness?). Seems the players couldn’t get a clear feel about the travel issues, days off, etc. etc and they didn’t like the fact that there were seven teams in two conferences and eight teams in two others and the players thought it would be harder to make the playoffs in the West. Most people involved with the NHL believed that this was simply Fehr’s first shot at the owners in what everyone believes will be a long, ugly battle for a new collective bargaining agreement (the old one expires on Sept. 15, 2012). In fact, many people are convinced there will not be a hockey season in 2012-13.

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Randy Cunneyworth, not the bad guy.

4. The Mess in Montreal: Here is the biggest problem facing the Montreal Canadiens: They don’t win enough games. At the midway point of the season, the Habs are 16-18-7 and in 12th place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. However, many Quebeckers are not angry at the fact the Habs are a lousy team, but they’re incensed by the less-important fact (at least to a rational individual) that the Canadiens fired Jacques Martin and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth, a coach from Etobicoke, Ont., who does not speak French. On Saturday night, Quebec Nationalists protested that the Canadiens, “aren’t French enough.”  What really pissed them off was the fact they found out the language of the locker room is English and that the team is made up of eight players from English Canada, five Americans, 10 Europeans (none from France) and only two Quebecois. In a roundabout way, the protesters have a right to be upset. How good and French would Montreal be today if they’d drafted PA Parenteau in 2001; Patrice Bergeron in 2003; Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Marc-Andre Gragnani in 2005; Claude Giroux, Brad Marchand and Mathieu Perrault in 2006; and hadn’t traded away Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse and their first-round pick in 2008? Of course, have you noticed that after Giroux and maybe Vincent Lecavalier, there aren’t that many great French-Canadian players anymore? Maybe the problem in Quebec is at the minor hockey level, not the NHL level.

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Opening Night in Winnipeg

3. The Return of the Winnipeg Jets: It was one of the biggest stories in Canadian sport in 2011. On May 31, Mark Chipman and David Thompson announced that they had acquired the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL and they were going to move the team to Winnipeg. They sold out the season tickets at the MTS Centre – for five years! – in just 17 minutes. Since then they have won 19 of their first 41 games (19-16-5) and remain a legitimate playoff threat. After 16 years without an NHL team, Winnipeg had its beloveds back again and Canada had a seventh franchise. The crowd at MTS Centre is so loud, enthusiastic, fun and intelligent that it has become an international story unto itself. Happy days are here again.

2. Concussions and The Shanahan Justice: This season, Brendan Shanahan took over from Colin Campbell as the NHL’s director of discipline and it’s clear he’s been told to do everything possible to lower the number of concussions being suffered by NHL players. The concussion “epidemic,” is indeed and epidemic, but there is one big problem: Many of the concussions suffered by the game’s top players came as a result of (a) contact with teammates, (b) inadvertent contact based on the speed and size of the players and (c) injuries that were a result of hard plastic equipment that is a dangerous weapon when it’s placed on large, fast hockey players. So far this season, Shanahan has suspended 30 players while another 14 players have been fined. Trouble is, in the big picture, none of this is making a dent in the problem.

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Will We See Him Again?

1. The Loss of Sidney Crosby: So far this year Chris Pronger (who signed a seven-year contract with Philadelphia in 2009) has been lost for the season with a concussion, young superstars Claude Giroux and Jeff Skinner missed time with concussions or concussion-like symptoms and even Ottawa forward Milan Michalek (20 goals already) has missed games due to head trauma. However, the loss of Sidney Crosby — the game’s best player – since last January because of a concussion is what makes this epidemic so tragic. When the face of the game is also the face of the game’s biggest problem, the NHL has trouble.

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Another Day With the Circus

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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Chris Johnson Should Be in the NFL Playoffs

New Year’s Day was disappointing. There were no real upsets in the NFL wars. Sure, Kansas City going into Denver and beating the Broncos 7-3 was a bit of an upset, but considering all the holes in the Broncos offense, it wasn’t a big surprise.

In the end, the finish to the NFL season created the usual stupid playoff matchups. Explain to me the logic behind the ridiculous fact that 12-4 Pittsburgh has to go on the road to play at 8-8 Denver in the first round of the post-season this coming weekend. That’s bloody senseless. Sure, Denver won a Division, but there are BCS teams that could have won the AFC West. The only surprise in the AFC West is that San Diego coach Norv Turner wasn’t fired on Monday.

Of course, it was a surprise that Norv Turner wasn’t fired seven weeks ago.

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Tim Tebow Should Not Be in the NFL Playoffs

When 9-7 teams are eliminated (Tennessee) and 8-8 teams (Denver) get in, you have a problem with your playoff structure. It’s time the NFL went to at least eight teams in the post-season. Or else the league should have a cross-over team. Denver has no business being in the playoffs. And they have no business being in the playoffs even if they upset Pittsburgh this week. The Broncos, a sorry team,  are in the playoffs only because the rest of their division is putrid and their presence is a post-season blight on the NFL’s good name.

OK, that rant is done. Now, to relax. At least, on the day after New Year’s, we were treated to some very good sporting events.

Loved the Wisconsin-Oregon Rose Bowl, won 45-38 by Oregon in what the critics are calling Nike’s victory over adidas.

It seems the teams themselves were perfectly matched. The difference in the game was the uniforms. adidas had developed special uniforms for Wisconsin while Nike had developed what it called, “the greatest technological advancement in uniform design in sports history.” (I love the fact that Nike doesn’t get all hyperbolic about itself).

In the end, Oregon won because they had cooler helmets. At least, that’s my guess.

I also enjoyed the Michigan State-Georgia Outback Bowl in Tampa. Considering the way the Buccaneers played in 2011, it was the best football game Tampa fans saw all year. Michigan State won 33-30 in triple overtime. Nice.

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Rangers Score to Win the Winter Classic

The one thing that wasn’t so nice on Jan. 2 was the Winter Classic, the NHL’s outdoor game in Philly. The hockey was decent and it’s always fun to watch one outdoor NHL game a year, but the officiating made the NHL look like professional wrestling.

I had a Sport Select ticket with the Flyers on it, but by the end of the game, I was cheering for the Rangers. That’s because, by the end of the game, referees Ian Walsh and Dennis LaRue were doing everything they possibly could to get Philly the tying goal. Why didn’t one of them just throw the puck in the net and say Scottie Hartnell shot it?

Ryan Callahan’s holding the stick penalty was one of the most mind-boggling calls in hockey history while the penalty shot call on Ryan McDonagh was weak (Covering the puck in the crease? Well, maybe, at absolute worst). In the end, Henrik Lundqvist beat the officials by himself and I didn’t even mind tearing up my Pro Line ticket.

Then, to top off a very interesting day, word arrived on my Twitter that the Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats were about to swap quarterbacks.

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Henry Burris Now No. 1 in Hamilton

You knew it was coming, didn’t you? You knew there was no way the Hamilton Tiger-Cats were going back into battle with Kevin Glenn as their No. 1 quarterback next season. And you also knew that Lyle Bauer, the president in Calgary, was NOT going to pay Henry Burris a bonus on Feb. 1, if he could help it. After all, he pulled the same trick with Kevin Glenn in 2009 when he released Glenn before he had to pay him a few thousand bones.

Anyway, we learned late in the day that there was a deal in place to send Glenn to Calgary as the backup to Drew Tate — along with offensive lineman Mark Dewit — while Burris would head to the Ticats to be the new No. 1 in Hamilton.

It was a huge trade, but absolutely no surprise.

It was quite a day. Throw in all the NFL firings and it was a lot more fun than NFL Sunday.

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Helpless

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment
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Sidney Crosby

It could have been called “Black Tuesday.”

On Tuesday, Dec. 20, two New York Islanders, goalie Al Montoya and forward David Ullstrom, were taken from the ice with suspected concussions. In Ottawa, Jesse Winchester left the game with head trauma. In Pittsburgh, the home of Sidney Crosby and his fragile cranium, Chicago’s Marcus Kruger left the game with a concussion after a vicious hit from Deryk Engelland.

One night, three games, four concussions.

If there was one story that has consumed the National Hockey League this season, it is the concussion story. Yes, the return of the Jets was wonderful and the death of three players in the off-season was tragic, but the one story that wouldn’t fade away –primarily because of the injury suffered by Sidney Crosby – was the concussion story.

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Shea Weber in happier times

And, not surprisingly, it became as big an issue as ever at the end of 2011. Especially after John-Michael Liles went down on Dec. 22 and Shea Weber suffered a concussion on Dec. 23.

Sadly, there is very little that can be done about it.

Now, naturally, the NHL was concerned the night Montoya, Ullstrom, Winchester and Kruger went down. Already, some of its biggest stars were on the sidelines nursing head injuries – Crosby, Jeff Skinner, Chris Pronger — so of course the league was worried.

Trouble was, there was absolutely nothing the NHL could have done. Engelland was suspended for his hit on Kruger, but Montoya was blasted by Winnipeg’s Evander Kane, who was pushed into the goalie, so it wasn’t Kane’s fault. Kane didn’t even have a discussion with the NHL’s vice-president of discipline, Brendan Shanahan.

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Brendan Shanahan: A Man With an Impossible Job

Fact is, in the vast majority of major head trauma incidents this season, there was absolutely nothing the NHL could have done. Milan Michalek ran into his own teammate. Claude Giroux ran into his own teammate. The list goes on.

Tim Wharnsby, who writes for CBCsports.ca has kept count of this season’s concussions and resulting suspensions. According to Wharnsby, the NHL has lost 457 man-games due to head injuries while players have been suspended a total of 77 games for alleged illegal hits.

And still, players are suffering concussions at an alarming rate.

Here are the problems:

1. The equipment. The players don’t wear padding anymore, they wear body armour. Their equipment is a weapon, or a series of weapons.

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The End of Marc Savard's Career

2. The athletes are too big and too fast. Fifty years ago, players averaged 5-foot-10, 175 pounds. Today, it’s 6-foot-2, 220-pounds. The ice surface is no bigger than t was then. Accidents will happen and the presence of these very big men will make those accidents more devastating.

3. The skates. Today’s hockey skates are a technological masterpiece. They are lighter, the blades are sharper and as a result, these giant players skate faster than ever. When the players run into each other, somebody gets hurt.

4. No red line. Players are flying through the neutral zone at a pace that has never been more frightening. If a player gets hit in the neutral zone now, there is always a chance a stretcher will be required.

5. The ice surface. With larger, faster players, the 200-foot X 85-foot enclosure might be too small. But there is one problem. If you watch a hockey game today, most of the fierce play occurs in a space from 10-feet to 30-feet in front of the net, between the circles. Even if there was a larger ice surface, it’s unlikely players would use the extra space.

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Will he get up this time?

The NHL can continue to pass new rules designed to avoid the inevitable. It can fine and suspend players and pay a full-time disciplinarian to try and “clean-up” the game. But I’m afraid none of it will work.

It’s the nature of the game – a fast, brutal dangerous game. And as long as large, tough, fearless, fast-skating, highly-paid entertainers are asked to do what’s necessary to play in the NHL, there will be serious head injuries.

And there is nothing – nothing – that the league can do about it.

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The NHL’s New Breed

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It’s September and amazingly, that means a brand new NHL  season is right around the corner. In fact, the Winnipeg Jets will officially open their first “new” training camp in the ‘Peg on Sept. 17.

The new-look Jets will be a very young team, at least at its core. On the current Jets’ NHL/AHL roster, the Jets have 23 players born after Jan. 1, 1986. That means the Jets will be young at both the NHL and AHL levels.

The team’s young star is probably Evander Kane, a 20-year-old who had a nice year in 2010-11 and is expected to have a huge year in 2011-12. In fact, the NHL is loaded with young stars who are simply going to get better.

As examples, Matt Duchene was outstanding in 2010-11; Brandon Dubinsky was hard-nosed and solid around the net throughout the season; and Claude Giroux was about as steady as a player could be.

The reason I mention Duchene, E. Kane, Dubinsky and Giroux (I could also mention Nicklas Backstrom, James Neal and Logan Couture), is because no one spent the past NHL season mentioning them much at all.

Let’s be brutally honest, hockey pundits (at least, the ones who aren’t going on relentlessly about the Toronto Maple Leafs), fans and fantasy players, spend most of their time focused on the game’s big names: Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane, Brad Richards, Jonathan Toews, Alex Ovechkin, Marty St. Louis, the Sedin Twins, Jarome Iginla, Dany Heatley etc., etc.

And while Crosby, 23, Stamkos, 20, Patrick Kane, 22, and Toews, 22, are among hockey’s great young players, they are simply the leaders of a new group poised to take over the game.

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Rookie of the Year Jeff Skinner

These are the young guns, the players, born in 1986 or later, who play tough, gritty hockey every night, score some goals, make plays and generally show up on the scoresheet without getting a whole lot of recognition outside of their own markets. In fact, until he won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year this past spring, even Carolina’s Jeff Skinner was not a household name in most of his relatives’ households. Now, he’s as big a star as there is in the game and a player expected to do great things for many years to come.

With the start of training camp a little more than two weeks away, let’s take a minute to honor those players, the members of hockey’s new breed and the guys that fantasy players don’t spend a lot of time talking about, but couldn’t win a pool without.

And here’s a guarantee: By the start of the 2012-13 season, these will be the players that fantasy winners will all be selecting, every season, with their top draft picks.

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll leave Crosby, Stamkos, Patrick Kane, Toews and Skinner to the masses. They already know about those guys anyway. However, for those hockey mavens who are playing in keeper pools this season, here’s a look at the next batch of big stars about to take their rightful places on the NHL marquee.

The NHL’s 10 “Next Great Stars.”

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Anaheim's Bobby Ryan

Bobby Ryan, Anaheim Ducks: He may have a spot on the marquee already. A 2010 U.S. Olympian, the 24-year-old Ryan was Anaheim’s first pick, second overall, in the 2005 NHL entry draft. This past year he had 34 goals and 37 assists (21st in points in the NHL) playing on a line with two great Canadian Olympians, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, and he’s emerged as one of the best players in the game. Last year, he had 35 goals and 29 assists and in 2008-09, he had 31 goals in only 64 games. At 6-foot-2, 210-pounds, he’s strong, skilled and not afraid to scrap. He’s another big time power forward who will be a major goal-scorer for another decade. And if he stays healthy, he will soon be considered one of hockey’s great players.

Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals: At 23, he’s one of those guys who has already arrived, but because he plays in the rather substantial shadow of Alex Ovechkin, he’s not as well known as he should be. From Gavle, Sweden, he was the fourth overall pick in 2006 and is clearly one of the game’s great players. This season, he had 18 goals and 47 assists and is 35th in scoring right behind Rick Nash, Mike Richards and Sidnet Crosby (albeit in 41 games). He plays on Ovie’s line most nights and occasionally he plays better than his more well-known colleague. Fast and with great hands, Backstrom had 101 points in 2009-10 and should finish with 80-90 this coming season.

Matt Duchene, Colorado Rockies: Duchene is only “obscure” because he plays in Denver and doesn’t get a lot of TV exposure in Canada. After all: Who was the No. 29 scorer in the National Hockey League last year? Yep, Matt Duchene. The third overall pick in the 2009 NHL entry draft has arrived on the scene and announced his presence with authority. As a rookie in 2009-10, Duchene had 24 goals and 31 assists. This past year, the 5-foot-11, 200-pounder from Haliburton, Ont., had 27 goals and 40 assists. Assuming that the NHL participates, when the 2014 Winter Olympics roll around, you have to figure 20-year-old Matt Duchene – who has played on Canada’s under-18 and World Junior Championship teams – will be a major player for Team Canada.

Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers: What a nice 23-year-old player. He finished the 2010-11 season as the No. 13 scorer in the NHL and helped make Jeff carter and Mike Richards expendable in Philly. Just like Duchene, he’s a former World Junior Championship player for Canada (2007-08) and a former first round draft pick (22nd overall in 2006). In 2009-10, he had 16 goals and 31 assists in all 82 games. This past year, the durable Giroux scored 25 goals and had 51 assists and played in all 82 games.

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L.A.'s Anze Kopitar

Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings: He’s only 24, but he’s been in the NHL since 2006-07. The greatest player in the history of Slovenian hockey, Kopitar was the Kings’ first draft pick (11th overall) in 2005. This past year, he had 25 goals and 48 assists after finishing the 2009-10 season with 34 goals and 47 assists. He’s already had a solid career, but this 6-foot-3, 230-pound power-forward-with-skill is slowly, but surely becoming one of the game’s great players. He was 20th in scoring this past season (in only 75 games) when he tore up his ankle and had surgery. However, with plenty of time to heal and with the off-season improvement of the Kings, he should put up even bigger numbers next year.

Logan Couture, San Jose Sharks: Another former first-round pick (ninth overall in 2007), Couture is 22 and is also another former under-18 Team Canada member. This past season he scored 32 goals (14th overall) and dished out 24 assists The 6-foot-1, 195 pounder from Guelph is going to be one of the game’s next great players. He was a finalist for the 2011 Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year and he just signed a $5.75 million deal that will keep him out of the restricted free agent market next July.

Brandon Dubinsky, New York Rangers: Dubinsky, who has played in two World Championships for the United States, is a 25-year-old from Alaska who was a second-round pick in 2004. He is a fearless player who has never been a big scorer, but this past year he started to pit up some impressive numbers. He finished 73rd in scoring with 24 goals and 30 assists in 77 games. In 2008-09, he had 13 goals, 41 points and 112 penalty minutes and proved he is not afraid to scrap. As an example, last December against the Caps, Dubinsky had a goal and an assist and dropped Alex Ovechkin in a fight early in the game to complete his Gordie Howe hat trick. For a guy who had never scored more than 20 goals in a season (2009-10), he had a tremendous 2010-11 and was rewarded with a big new contract.

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Winnipeg's Evander Kane

Evander Kane, Winnipeg Jets: The “other” Kane. Another former first round pick, Kane matched his 2009-10 offensive numbers in just 37 games this past season. This is a kid who has already played in the World Junior and the World Senior Championships for Team Canada and at 20, he’s starting to put up some impressive numbers. He had 19 goals and 24 assists last year in Atlanta and at 6-foot-2, 200-pounds, this youngster from Vancouver will soon be a high pick in every fantasy league. In fact, there are some pundits who think Kane is capable of reaching 30 goals and 60 points this season.

James Neal, Pittsburgh Penguins: A guy who played five games for the Manitoba Moose in 2008-09, Neal has exploded into one of the top power forwards in the game. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound leftwinger from Whitby, Ont., had 22 goals and 23 assists in 2010-11. A 24-year-old who was Dallas’s second pick (33rd overall) in 2005 – Matt Niskanen was the Stars’ first pick – Neal had 27 goals and 28 assists in 2010-11 and it obviously wasn’t a fluke.

Milan Lucic, Boston Bruins: The classic power-forward at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, the big 23-year-old from Vancouver first earned a full-time job with the Bruins in 2006-07, but had never played what could be called a full season in the NHL until 2010-11. This past year he had 30 goals and 32 assists and led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup. He’s also a guy who will put up 80-100 minutes in penalties. He’s going to be a big-time player for a long time to come and if the Bruins expect to challenge for back-to-back Cups, it will be Milan Lucic leading the way.

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Our Picks for the NHL Awards

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Tonight in Las Vegas the National Hockey League will holds its annual awards show.

Here’s a look at the nominees and our choices as the most deserving winners:

Hart Trophy (Most Valuable Player)

Nominees: Corey Perry (Anaheim), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver) and Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay).

Who we think should win: Daniel Sedin.

Vezina Trophy (outstanding goaltender)

Nominees: Roberto Luongo (Vancouver), Pekka Rinne (Nashville) and Tim Thomas (Boston).

Who should win: Tim Thomas.

Norris Trophy (outstanding all-around defenceman)

Nominees: Zdeno Chara (Boston), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit) and Shea Weber (Nashville).

Who should win: Zdeno Chara.

Calder Trophy (outstanding rookie)

Nominees: Logan Couture (San Jose), Michael Grabner (N.Y. Islanders) and Jeff Skinner (Carolina).

Who should win: Jeff Skinner.

Jack Adams (outstanding coach)

Nominees: Dan Bylsma (Pittsburgh), Barry Trotz (Nashville) and Alain Vigneault (Vancouver).

Who should win: Barry Trotz.

Selke Trophy (top defensive forward)

Nominees: Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit), Ryan Kesler (Vancouver) and Jonathan Toews (Chicago).

Who should win: Jonathan Toews.

Lady Byng (most gentlemanly player)

Nominees: Loui Eriksson (Dallas), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit) and Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay).

Who should win: Nicklas Lidstrom.

Ted Lindsay Award (outstanding player as voted by his peers)

Nominees: Corey Perry (Anaheim), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver) and Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay).

Who should win: Sedin.

 

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Great First Round of the Playoffs. Now it’s on to Round 2

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

There is only one Canadian team left in the Stanley Cup playoffs and let’s be honest, the Vancouver Canucks were lucky to move on.

Meanwhile, we had a pretty darn good record in Round 1, finishing 7-1 (our only miss was Nashville over the Ducks). With a game on Thursday night, it’s time to take a close look at Round 2:

2011 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ROUND 2

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Series I: No. 5 Tampa Bay Lightning (Defeated Pittsburgh in Seven Games) at No. 1 Washington Capitals (Defeated NY Rangers in Five Games).

Season Series: Washington won 4-1-1

The Capitals looked awesome in taking out the Rangers in five games. Ovechkin is back, Semin scored a couple of big goals and the checking lines were great. Tampa can score, no doubt about it, but in their win over Pittsburgh, the Lightning had some very bright spots defensively. In fact, that 1-0 win on the road in Game 7 against the Pens was a tribute to both goaltender Dwayne Roloson and the defensive unit in front of him. I loved the way Tampa battled back and I’ve developed a great deal of respect for coach Guy Boucher, but I just think Washington is the best team in the East.

Key player; Dwayne Roloson, Tampa Bay Lightning.

Our pick: Washington in six.

Series J: No. 3 Boston Bruins (Defeated Montreal in Seven Games) at No. 2 Philadelphia Flyers (Defeated Buffalo in Seven Games).

Season Series: Boston won 3-0-1

It’s the same thing every year. If the Flyers get the goaltending they require, they will win and advance. If they don’t, well… Boston won the season series quite handily and beat a much better team to get to the second round. Boston has significantly better goaltending and Philly will go down for the same reason it goes down every year. If your goaltender isn’t your best player, you can always lose. Once again, Philadelphia is likely to lose.

Key player: Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins

Our pick: Boston in six.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Series K: No. 5 Nashville Predators (Defeated Anaheim in Six Games) at No. 1 Vancouver Canucks (Defeated Chicago in Seven Games)

Season Series: A split 2-2.

If you are a regular reader of fantrax.com, you know I’m a huge fan of Predators head coach Barry Trotz. On Monday I wrote that he should be the NHL’s coach of the year. However, I also think his hard-working Preds might need some divine help to get past the Canucks who just got a real scare from the Chicago Blackhawks – proving that defending champions do not go down easily. The Preds don’t score a lot, they don’t have a of bog name stars and they seldom look like a playoff worthy team at the start of the season, but this year’s Predators are as good a team as there is in the West. Trouble is, they get to face the best team in the NHL and one suspects the Sedin Twins will wake up this time.

Key player:  Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks

Our pick: Vancouver in five.

Series L: No. 3 Detroit Red Wings (Defeated Phoenix in Four Games) at No. 2 San Jose Sharks (Defeated Los Angeles in Six Games).

Season Series: Sharks won 3-1-0

This is a great matchup because in recent years both of these teams have been very good and yet both have choked in the playoffs. Detroit looked like a buzz saw, taking out a pretty good Coyotes team in four straight games. If Pavel Datsyuk is a as good as he was in Round 1 and the checking lines continue to dominate, the Wings could have an easy time. Henrik Zetterberg is also expected back for Round 2. The Sharks finally got past the first round and looked good doing it, although they did take out a banged-up Kings team that just wasn’t up to snuff offensively without leading scorer, Anze Kopitar. However, Joe Thornton looked good in Round 1 and that might bode well for the Sharks.

Key player: Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings.

Our pick: Red Wings in six.

 

 

 

 

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No Better Player Than Jonathan Toews

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

So what’s a kid do for an encore?

Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Patrick Kane scored a weak goal in overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final. It turned out to be the final game of the championship round of the NHL’s post-season and Chicago will now get to go home and have a parade.

Kane had a tremendous championship series, but not nearly as good a Stanley Cup playoff as Winnipeg’s own Jonathan Toews.

Toews was absolutely remarkable from the start of the playoffs right up to the last goal in Wednesday’s finale. He finished second in scoring in the post-season with 29 points (the Winnipeg Jets final draft pick, Daniel Briere won the scoring title with three points to Toews one in the final game to finish with 30 points). He was a leader in every respect and after the Hawks celebrated their victory, Toews was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.

What a sensational year for Toews. Last fall there were people in the Eastern part of our nation who didn’t think Toews should be on Canada’s Olympic team. Not only did he make the team, he scored a big goal in the gold medal game, led Canada to a magnificent victory and was named the Olympic tournament’s top forward.

Wednesday night, Toews picked up an assist and played nearly 24 minutes (the most of any Blackhawks forward) as he led the Blackhawks to their first Stanley Cup since 1961. He was also the most valuable player at the most important time of the year.

And he’s only 22.

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Lousy Goaltending Equals Great Entertainment

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The Chicago Blackhawks took a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup final Sunday night. Antti Niemi outduelled both Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher.

Unfortunately for the Philadelphia Flyers, coach Peter Laviolette couldn’t put both Leighton and Boucher in the net at the same time.

Laviolette pulled Leighton in the second period after the darling of the Eastern Conference final allowed three goals in the 13 shots he faced. Boucher came in a gave up three goals on 14 shots. If the puck was as big as a football, the Flyers might be ahead in this series.

However, it’s not like Niemi has been the second coming of Glenn Hall. He allowed four goals on 27 shots and most NHL coaches would not be happy with a goalie whose series goals against average is now 3.80. His save percentage is below .900. That’s not good.

Of course, that’s what is going to make the next game or two spectacular. When there is a chance — a good chance — that Game 6 will finish 9-8, you can’t help but get fired up to watch. Fans wanted offence and thanks to three marginal goaltenders — and Flyers defenceman Chris Pronger who was a slick minus-5 on Sunday night — they now have offence.

It’s just too bad for the Flyers that ever since Bernie Parent retired, they haven’t had a chance to win a Cup. No goalie, no championship. This year, however, they get to play against Antti Niemi. Before it’s over, he could cough up ol’ Lord Stanley all by himself.

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